Lithium Rich Manganese

Lithium Rich Manganese (LRM) has a high specific capacity because of both cationic and anionic redox activity and are expected to be developed and applied as cathode materials for a new generation of high-energy density lithium-ion batteries [1].

Note: Lithium Manganese Rich (LMR) ≡ Lithium Rich Manganese (LRM)

 et al [2] show that increasing LRM loading mass to 10 mA⋅h⋅cm−2 (calculated by 300 mA⋅h⋅g−1) and decreasing the E/C ratio to less than 1.5 g⋅A−1⋅h−1, leading to the mass proportion of LRM surpassing 60%, eventually, the battery energy density could reach an unprecedented 620–700 W⋅h⋅kg−1

A small team developed a rechargeable 10-Ah pouch cell using an ultra-thin lithium metal anode, and a lithium-rich, manganese oxide-based cathode.

Institute of Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences [2]
LRM voltage curves

The lab based battery design was tested at 711.3 Wh/kg and 1,654 Wh/litre. The roadmap from the paper shows the WeLion cell as used in the NIO 150kWh ES6 battery pack.

Key Challenges

There are a number of chllenges to solve before this chemistry is commercialised:

  • anionic redox reactions activated at high charging voltage resulting in:
    • irreversible oxygen release
    • surface/interface structural phase transitions
    • transition metal dissolution
    • interfacial side reactions
  • low initial coulombic efficiency
  • limited rate performance due to:
    • lithium-ion diffusion rates within the material
    • charge transfer rates at the electrode/electrolyte interface
  • significant voltage and capacity decay during cycling is mainly due to:
    • release of lattice oxygen, which triggers the conversion of redox couples
    • defect formation
    • phase structure transformations
    • interfacial side reactions

This post has been built based on the support and sponsorship from: MAHLE Powertrain Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Eatron Technologies, About:Energy and Quarto Technical Services.

References

  1. Guo, W.; Weng, Z.; Zhou, C.; Han, M.; Shi, N.; Xie, Q.; Peng, D.-L. Li-Rich Mn-Based Cathode Materials for Li-Ion Batteries: Progress and Perspective. Inorganics 2024, 12, 8. https://doi.org/10.3390/inorganics12010008
  2. , ,  and , A 700 W⋅h⋅kg−1 Rechargeable Pouch Type Lithium Battery, Chinese Physics Letters, Volume 40, Number 4
  3. Xingpeng Cai, Ningshuang Zhang, Jie Wang, Xinan Zhou, Fei Xu, Hao Ding, Peng Wang, Linhu Song, Jin Huang, Xiaolan Fu, Xiaoling Cui, Chengchao Yang, Shiyou Li, Understanding mechanism of voltage decay and temperature sensitivity of Li-rich manganese-based cathode materials, Materials & Design, Volume 225, 2023

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